Frenzied Wombat
Potato del Grande
Yeah, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough but I only found one or two side quests to do before having to tackle Carvega. Dealing with machine gun turrets using a 10mm handgun and/or a double barrel shotgun just made me feel like I was way overextending myself. Hell, just making it through Lexington to reach Carvega made it feel like I was advancing way too fast for my level.That mission is on the rough side. Really the game kind of assumes you will explore around a bit before tackling those quests, but then railroads you right into them early.
Vats is your friend. Vats, hide, heal, pop out and vats again. Also, get a combat shotgun from a vender as soon as you can and mod it to match whatever your main weapon skill is (ideally rifle).
@Tenks-
If you are into generating crits, a stealthed combat knife is a very competitive alternative (and actually works with the ninja perk) provided you have charge. Single hit kills are the Super Sledge forte, but its very easy to get stun locked against certain enemies when not in VATS. Also, once you get the "chance to do shitty thing on hit" passive perks stacked up, the knife (or fist weapons, really) come into their own.
So you can mod a shotgun to be categorized as a rifle? So far I'm doing a perception/agility/intelligence build-- hoping to be sniper-ish..